I’m often asked what the definition is of a coloratura soprano…the answer I usually give is that the coloratura is like an Olympic athlete of the female voice.
In Italian coloratura means “with colour” and coloratura music is written with elaborate ornamentation of a melody and is distinguished by agile runs, leaps and trills. To successfully sing coloratura music a soprano must train the voice to perform with an almost impossible ability to leap and descend an octave or two with an agility worthy of any Olympian - as ably demonstrated by top operatic German coloratura soprano Diana Damrau who has made the role of Queen Of The Night from Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute her own. Here she sings the aria…out of character, in this live recording for her album “Arie de Bravura”.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Unless you have incredible imagination, like Beethoven or Mozart, you have to hear & see it to believe it!
FrayedBear
Level 9
Feb 12, 2025
2
It’s an incredible skill to sing with such agility and takes a lot of time and effort training the muscles of the vocal cords. The classical composers must have been slightly sadistic to expect the human voice to do such vocal gymnastics. All very well playing it on a musical instrument such as a piano or violin, but they must’ve heard a human voice replicate it in their heads to write it as a vocal aria.
@Marionville or is it that back in the composer's days singers were more skilful either through training or that bodies have now degenerated & lost once normal abilities through lack of discipline, training, contamination from atmosphere, chemicals etc.?
@FrayedBear No…it’s not that in my opinion. Today’s elite sportsmen and women can go faster, higher and have more strength than those of earlier times…and the same goes for classical singers who are very conscious of diet and lifestyle.
@Marionville 
you mean the gross bodies of Pavarotti et al represent conscious diets & lifestyles? . . . A thought that led me to this :
@FrayedBear Pavarotti is not typical of modern day opera singers…he was more typical of the opera singers of previous centuries. You will find that most of the 21st century top opera singers are very health and diet conscious, and are able to develop lung and diaphragm capacy and control without having to increase corporeal body mass.